Ripple Effects

I started challenging my students 3 weeks ago. The first challenge was to engage a smile, "hello, how are you?" with someone that is "negative" force in their lives. The second challenge was to make one consistent change to impact the earth in a positive way. I pointed out that my family used 1600 disposable water bottles a year! I really never thought the humongous number of bottles that we used, it was always a case at a time. We bought refillable water bottles and have been using them daily (either filtered water from the fridge or Brita water filter) since Earth day of 2007. That is 8 months ago,or should I say 1200 bottles ago. We really never thought about our impact on the earth it that way until we sat down to to make choices that we could really live with. My third challenge is to explore a new food, fruit or veggie this week. I had 200 students attend my 4 classes this week. 200 people being invited to challenge themselves to grow. Over the past 3 weeks of challenges we as a group(200 week 1, 90 week 2, 200 week 3) totaled 490 times to make a small difference. How inspiring! If we all just share a little goodness and a little encouragement to grow, we all could cause a positive ripple effect to make our lives that much better. I am humbled and honored to have so many wonderful students attend my classes. I want to thank all of you for being a constant source of inspiration for me! Namaste~ Tricia